The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of trumpet creeper that is grown for use as an ornamental landscape plant. The new cultivar is known botanically as Campsis radicans and will be referred to hereinafter by the cultivar name ‘TARANTELLA’.
The inventor has been interested in the genus Campsis since 1991 and maintains a collection of named cultivars and unnamed selections which have arisen at the inventor's nursery in Boskoop, The Netherlands. The inventor maintains the collection as a resource for deliberate open pollination as explained further below. The inventor's intention is to identify useful new hybrids of Campsis which combine the commercial attributes of plant hardiness, a slow rate of growth, and well-presented attractive inflorescences. The inventor has introduced other new varieties of Campsis to commerce, including the variety ‘HUIDAN’ (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 16,656).
In 2000, the inventor removed the male reproductive organs from a group of unnamed plants of Campsis grandiflora. The inventor held these emasculated plants in a greenhouse and hand-pollinated them using pollen which the inventor had collected from unnamed selections of Campsis radicans. By September 2000, the inventor was able to collect seeds and set them aside for sowing in the following year.
Ordinarily, Campsis plants grow very rapidly, especially in greenhouses, and the inventor was readily able to identify ‘TARANTELLA’ as a distinctively slower-growing variety. The inventor selected ‘TARANTELLA’ in 2001 for this useful characteristic.
The closest known comparison plant in commerce, known to the breeder, is the variety ‘HUIDAN’ (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 16,656). Comparisons may also be drawn with the two parent species (unpatented).
‘TARANTELLA’ differs from the male parent Campsis radicans as follows:
Whereas ‘TARANTELLA’ bears large red-orange flowers, the flowers of Campsis radicans are small and red. The racemes of ‘TARANTELLA’ are also longer than the racemes of Campsis radicans. 
‘TARANTELLA’ differs from the female parent Campsis grandiflora as follows:
Whereas ‘TARANTELLA’ bears large red-orange flowers, the flowers of Campsis grandifora are light orange. ‘TARANTELLA’ exhibits improved hardiness when compared with Campsis grandiflora. 
‘TARANTELLA’ differs from ‘HUIDAN’ as follows:
Whereas the flowers of ‘TARANTELLA’ are red-orange in color, the flowers of ‘HUIDAN’ are red and also smaller in size.
The first asexual reproduction of ‘TARANTELLA’ was conducted by the inventor in the summer of 2001 in a propagation greenhouse at the inventor's nursery in Boskoop, The Netherlands. The method used was softwood cuttings. Since that time ‘TARANTELLA’ has been determined fixed, stable and true to type in subsequent generations of asexual propagation.